A personal computer of the widely utilized "IBM-type", including the many clones and variations made by Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Compaq, Gateway-2000, Micron, Packard-Bell, ProGen, Digital-Equipment and many, many other makers is the type of computer system for which my invention is particularly intended. This type of computer commonly includes a microprocessor manufactured by Intel, Cyrix or AMD. For example, the Intel Pentium class is a particularly well established microprocessor family in contemporary personal computer designs. A variation on the entrenched microprocessor is also demonstrated by a StrongARM.TM. which is a RISC design licensed by Advanced Risc Machines Ltd., Cambridge, England to Digital Equipment Corp., Maynard, Mass. (as acquired by Compaq Computer). This StrongARM.TM. device is said to be capable of running under nine different operating systems and currently finds application in Apple Computer Inc.'s Newton.TM. hand-held computer, as well as in an internet-ready telephone produced by Phillips Electronics-NV, and other consumer and commercial applications.
The usual PC embodiment, as upgraded from the original IBM Corp. design circa 1982 includes a microprocessor, DRAM and a ROM-BIOS which together with floppy disk and hard disk drive interface circuitry and miscellaneous housekeeping circuitry comprises a motherboard into which various function cards (or daughterboards) are plugged. The most common plug-in card is for the color video display and currently of a category known as SVGA (super video graphics array).
In a usual computer configuration, at least one hard disk drive is utilized as "Drive C" which includes "boot tracks" (track .0.) holding software code for an underlying operating system, such as the initial portion of Microsoft's "Windows 3.11 for Workgroups", for example. During a "cold boot" start-up, the ROM-BIOS introduces operational code to the microprocessor which steps the system through a subsequential series of self-test and initialization steps, including memory verification. ROM-BIOS is a distinctly separate boot code contained on EPROM or FLASH-PROM integrated circuits and ordinarily provided by vendors under the names of Phoenix-BIOS, AMI-BIOS and Award-BIOS. Furthermore, the ROM-BIOS is uniquely tailored to the associated motherboard circuitry. Once these ROM-BIOS code functions have been mostly satisfied, operation is transferred to the boot track .0. of the Drive C. This boot track includes system files which define the fundamental operational character of the computer once it is in full operation.
Unlike the ROM-BIOS boot code, the boot track .0. code on the Drive C is somewhat more "generic" or universal in character, that is it is not necessarily tailored to the particular computer with which it is associated, but rather is quite the same for nearly every computer. For example, with the mentioned Microsoft Windows 3.11, the most fundamental boot files ordinarily include the IO.SYS and MSDOS.SYS files, which are actually a part of the underlying Micrcosoft MS/DOS 4, 5 or 6 operating system.
Separate CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files are utilized to tailor the software to the unique accessorial configuration of a given computer system. In addition a COMMAND.COM file is ordinarily included to provide the underlying interfacial support and operational character to the operating system.
In this typified Microsoft setup, the Windows 3.11 acts essentially like a shell program which resides above the typical MS/DOS 6.2 (or equivalent) operating system installation. These system files couple with the COMMAND.COM file in the system's root directory and together the combination affords the most fundamental functional aspects of the operating system. As is well known, many other files under the C:.backslash.DOS and C:.backslash.WINDOWS directory (or equivalent) develops the full character or "style and feel" of the Windows 3.11 operating system.
Windows-95 is a contemporaneous "operating system", arguable as to whether it is a shell program that includes an underlying and transparent MS/DOS 7 operating system. The intermix of MS/DOS and Windows programs portions are so thorough with Windows-95 that the Windows-95 portions can not be readily stripped from the MS/DOS 7 portions and subsequently operated solely in the MS/DOS 7 mode. As a result, it is relatively safe to say that the Windows-95 is an operating system or at the very least, a de facto operating system.